The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan saw tens of thousands of young men arriving in Canada. Not all left after completing their training. Accidents happen.
Pilot-Sergeant Blair Kempton-Werohia was killed when his plane plunged into Lake Ontario 10 miles west of No 31 Bombing and Gunnery School at Picton. He is buried in Section 29, Lot 1, Grave 130 at Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery, the only grave of a New Zealand airman in the cemetery. He had previously trained at BCATP Stations at Dunnville and Ottawa Rockliffe, where is was awarded his pilot’s wings.
The bodies of two others in the plane, David N Jones and Harry C Pigerham from the RAF, are interred at Picton’s Glenwood Cemetery.
Kempton-Werohia was to have been married the following week to Margaret Mary Humble of Ottawa.
My father was an air traffic controller for the BCATP in Assiniboina Saskatchewan and Portage la Prairie during WWII. I remember him commenting that they did have crashes and got the impression that they were difficult memories. I know we didn’t repatriate our fallen soldiers and assume our allies also didn’t. I wonder how one might find the graves of others
Susan: The grave or memorial if no body was recovered, and given at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website – http://www.cwgc.org